Steak frites
Steak-frites, meaning "steak fries" in French, is a very common and popular dish served in brasseries throughout Europe consisting of steak paired with French fries. It is considered by some to be the national dish of Belgium, which claims to be the place of its invention.
Historically, the rump steak was commonly used for this dish. More typically at the present time, the steak is an entrecôte also called rib eye, or scotch fillet, pan-fried rare, in a pan reduction sauce, sometimes with hollandaise or béarnaise sauce, served with deep-fried potatoes.
Francophilia led to its generalization to the Portuguese-speaking world, where it is called bife e fritas or bife com batata frita, especially in Brazil, where the sauce is usually just onion rings cooked and fried in the steak's own juice and frying oil, being the most popular dish to go aside rice and beans. The dish is also very popular in the Spanish-speaking world.
Steak-frites is the subject of a semiotic analysis by the French cultural theorist Roland Barthes in his 1957 work Mythologies.
